Day 6: Bora Bora One

Source:  Moon Tahiti Guide

Bora Bora. I don't think that there is any other island on this itinerary that is more anticipated than this one. This is the island that inspired Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, the basis of the musical South Pacific and the setting of the mythical Bali Hai. 

We set the alarm again today, but this time for 6am. Again, no matter; we were up before it sounded (but we're sleeping a little later each day...progress!), but when we went up to Deck 9 and peeked out toward the pool, it was discouraging to see that it was pouring and the ship was surrounded by fog. Still, by the time we had a cup of coffee in the Panorama Buffet, the sky began to clear as the Pacific Princess slowed considerably to make its way through a break in the wide, shallow reef which is the only opening into the Bora Bora lagoon, Teavanui (Tay-ah-VA-nwe) Pass. We made our way to the open deck on the front of the ship where port lecturer Douglas Pearson was once again holding court, educating interested passengers on what we were seeing and how it all came to be.

The peak of chimney rock Mount Otemanu, 2384 feet tall, was still in the clouds, but the rain had, at least temporarily stopped.  Occasionally we'd see a glimmer of sun break through the clouds and when that happened the clear blue water in the lagoon took on its characteristic iridescent shimmer of varying hues of blue. Since my first visit here in 2004, I've called that color Bora Bora blue. As we approached the island, a recording of Bali Hai was being played on the open decks. Fun!

The Pacific Princess anchored off the village of Vaitape on mainland Bora Bora (just 5 miles long and 2.5 miles wide, home to about 9000 people), and tender service was begun. G and I headed down to breakfast in the Club Restaurant with Douglas and his sister Margo, who is visiting him from England for a few cruises, and the two of them kept us thoroughly entertained (and significantly educated) about all things French Polynesian while we ate.

G and I made our way to the Vaitape pier on a tender about 9am.  As we stepped off the tender, we were each greeted with a tiare flower that tonight is still fragrant in our cabin. We had no firm plans for the day, and the weather was just questionable enough for us to not want to commit to taking a $5pp each way shuttle to Matira Beach (the only beach on mainland Bora Bora). There are plenty of tours available right on the pier; there is one that is $80pp for the standard snorkeling with stingrays and sharks and coral gardens experience that several of our fellow passengers took today and recommend. Twice before when we've been here we did all day tours doing just that plus a motu picnic with Top Dive. We have a snorkel trip/motu picnic planned with the famous Bora Bora Patrick (not to be confused with the Tahiti Patrick) later in our trip, plus a jet ski excursion another time. We're hoping that those days offers little better weather than we experienced this morning.  

Still, we wanted to do something and so we hopped on the free ferry to the Bora Bora airport on Motu Mute (MOO-tay). The upper deck of the ferry offered gorgeous and differing views as we circled around the northwest part of Bora Bora, and, once on Motu Mute we were able to walk along the spit of sand fronting the lagoon and get some sunny photos of the opposite side of Mount Otemanu from where the Pacific Princess is anchored. We watched the small inter-island Air Tahiti flights (not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui which operates the international routes) land and take off. With each arrival, the ferry makes another run from the airport to Vaitape, though most of the resorts located on the various motus run their own boats from the airport. 

This airstrip was originally built by Americans in 1943 as part of an American base established here just two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. There are still American gun installations around Bora Bora, intended to keep watch over the valuable island access via Teavanui Pass, though they are only reachable by 4WD.  While the Germans reached the island in WWI, the Japanese never did in WWII. 

Mount Otemanu as seen from Motu Mute

Look at that water color!

Air Tahiti flight loading up.

We eventually took the 15-minute ferry ride back to Vaitape (and were recorded saying "Bonjour" and "Bienvenue à Bora Bora" for a French documentary film crew while on the upper level with the island behind us...always an adventure!).  We purchased 60 minutes of wifi for 500 CFP at the Vaitapi Visitors Center on the pier, but should have saved our money...the only saving grace is that the login and password are good on several other islands too, so we'll try again another time. I took a minute to look at the shell jewelry being sold on the pier (I was hoping for Tiare perfume, but found none) and then we made our way back to the ship on a 10-minute tender ride.  It was fun to watch the locals in outrigger canoes paddle toward each tender, and then paddle madly to surf in its wake.  Over and over again they did this, all afternoon, and while we watched some get tipped over by the wake, most would ride the crest back to the pier or ship. It started to rain again while we were in the tender, and that kind of set the tone for the next couple of hours. We returned to our cabin to get dried off and cleaned up and went up to the Panorama Buffet for a quick late lunch. 

A rest was in order this afternoon in the hope that we'd be able to stay up until at least 11pm (the latest so far!) for the Tropical Deck Party being held tonight. It continued to drizzle on and off all afternoon, and Mount Otemanu disappeared and reappeared over and over again with each shower, right outside our cabin porthole. 

G took a few minutes to use a hot tub (and get that 3:30pm ice cream available in the buffet!) while I showered and got ready for the evening. We stopped into the Elite lounge for a few minutes (just 'cause the view was so amazing!) and then headed down to dinner. In the Club Restaurant, all the waiters were wearing wildly varied topical shirts in preparation for tonight's party, and passengers are similarly dressed. I can't help but imagine that the waiters, though they probably dislike having to work the  special dessert buffet that will be available from 10:15pm to 11pm, must enjoy not wearing jackets and ties while serving dinner. 

We are skipping the show tonight (a female vocalist) and instead taking a tender back to the Vaitape pier, to go to the famous Bloody Mary's for a drink before the deck party later. We will awaken tomorrow with gorgeous Mount Otemanu right outside our porthole and another day in paradise. 

Life is soooo good. :-)

Day 5: At Sea

We had stopped back to our cabin before the show last night, lay down on the bed "for just a minute"...and woke up at 5:30 this morning.  Although it was light outside, we could tell by the low-hanging clouds that today was not going to be a sunny one. And that's fine by me.  I am past the age where I want to bake in a lounge chair all day while at sea, and it's inevitable that we will be getting ample sun while we are in French Polynesia. I'm more than willing to trade sunny sea days for sunny port days, but hope that we do get plenty of latter. Yesterday's weather was perfect- in fact, maybe a little too perfect. I saw lots of red faces around the ship today, and I have my own red, painful reminders in a small spot on the back of each thigh that I missed while spraying on sunblock. Thank goodness I wore my long-sleeved rash guard while snorkeling!

As Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago is a bit removed from the Society Islands, the two sea days on this itinerary will immediately preceed and follow it. From here on out to turnaround day on October 29th, we have one island day after another. I had thought that, perhaps, tonight might be our second formal night, but that is not the case (I guess they figure that two dress-up nights out of three is a bit much for this laid-back ship). Instead, we'll be dressing up again the evening of our second day in Bora Bora, or, as we've already learned to call it, Bora Bora Two. 

So we had a relaxing sea day today with no formal obligations at the end, and several fun activities to choose from (or not) throughout the day. 

We got brewed coffee from the coffee bar in the Panorama Buffet and sat on the open deck behind the buffet overlooking the wake. Though we thought we might see land in the distance occasionally, we are not close enough to know for certain if something on the horizon is land or just low hanging clouds. Either these islands are so small or they are widely spaced enough (or both) that it isn't as if we have land right off the side of the ship. At 7:30am we went to the Club Restaurant for breakfast and were joined by Dave and Brenda and enjoyed swapping travel horror stories over lots of fresh pineapple and cottage cheese (for me). That's the thing about about travel's inevitable hiccups; while "And that day we went to a beach and the sun was shining and the sand was perfect" might be wonderful to experience, it really does not make for an interesting story at all (and I should know because it's one I tell quite frequently on this blog). Talking about cruise ship fires and breaking a tooth boarding a plane for LAX en route to Beijing is infinitely more fun to tell and hear. 

That concept has led to my only theory on life:  If I won't remember it in 10 years, or if it will make a good story, then don't waste time stressing over it today. 

Life theories aside (I'm feeling GPS-y today, in case you hadn't noticed), after breakfast G and I went out on the Promenade Deck and sat in side by side cushioned teak loungers looking at the sea. That was a wonderful thing, but too soon it was time to get down to business. We had booked a "sunset cruise" through Princess on the evening the Pacific Princess stays late in Raiatea (Rye-ah-TAY-a). As I've mentioned, ships don't often stay late in ports, and one of our few previous times doing that was in Barbados off the Sea Princess many years ago. We had taken a sunset sail that night on a catamaran, and, though I don't recall much about it (G said there was lots of rum and I led my fellow passengers in singing Happy Birthday for one of them and then might have also started the dancing, so perhaps my amnesia is for the best), I know it was a very good time. We thought the Raiatea sunset cruise might be the same, but have since found out it is not. It's on the same kind of small motorized boat we took snorkeling yesterday with only beer and wine and not even a dance floor, so what good is that?

G went to the Shore Excursion desk to return those tickets for a refund, and, in lieu of doing that sunset cruise, we decided to make reservations to dine in the ship's specialty steak house the night we stay late in Raiatea. We had not realized until last night, that, among the stack of papers waiting for us in our cabin the evening we first boarded in Papeete was a letter congratulating us for being among this cruise's MTPs (Most Traveled Passengers with Princess Cruises), and, in lieu of an MTP luncheon or an MTP Cocktail Party, the Pacific Princess on this itinerary allows us to dine one time at a speciality restaurant free of charge.  Someone at the Elite lounge asked us last night if we had made our reservation for that yet and we were clueless about the whole thing. 

Do you see why we have to do cruises over and over?  We are simply slow learners. ;-)

Following that bit of administrative work, G wanted to attend the Ammolite seminar for this cruise. Surely our odds of winning an Ammolite pendant in the raffle at the end had to be good on this small ship?  Apparently not good enough. Despite us both being there, someone who walked in at the very end just before the drawing won the pendant (the injustice of that was crushing). I told the presenter, Igor, that I was going to just have to book the next cruise and try again.

We already knew Igor because one of us (the shopper...not me) discovered he needed a new watch battery the first day on the ship. Remembering full well the issues we had simply purchasing hand soap and laundry detergent in Papeete, he knew that trying to find battery ABC123 was an endeavor bordering on the insane and figured his best bet was the Facets jewelry store on board. Well, Facets didn't have watch batteries but Igor, the store manager, was very pleased (quelle surprise!) to show G a Citizen Ecodrive watch that will never let him down like his old watch, as it is solar powered. G was intrigued, plus he could get 20% off the already low! low! low! tax and duty price on the second day of the cruise and that is how I came to know Igor too, as I was asked to come to the store while a final choice was made. Now G is walking around like a newly-engaged girl, with his left wrist permanently extended out in front of him as he admires his new watch. 

I think the least Igor can do for me having to put up with that is to make sure my ticket number is drawn from the ice bucket for a free Ammolite pendant on one of these cruises. 

G made a hot tub stop to check the water temp after the unsuccessful raffle. He wants me to tell you that his only disappointment about this ship is that the two hot tubs are SO not hot (in his mind, he is truly roughing it). In fact, it is a common complaint among the "tubbies". This morning it was actually chilly and windy on deck with a few passing showers, so the water felt a smidge warmer but is still falling far short of expectations. Also not hot, in fact, downright cold are most of the public areas on board, especially (!!!!) the Cabaret Lounge. Today I pulled out the newly laundered fleece pullover I wore on our travel day and wore it the entire day. And shoes and socks. In French Polynesia.

By 11:30am I was thinking that the pineapple and cottage cheese I'd had at breakfast didn't have much staying power; we were at lunch in the Club Restaurant shortly after it opened at noon. I was more hungry than I had any right to be on a sea day. Lucky for us, we enjoyed our favorite lunch menu with spaghetti aglio, olio and pepperocino for me and mozzarella cheese sticks for G. We lingered over lunch, cozy and well fed as rain poured down the dining room windows. In fact, we missed magician Greg Moreland's card trick lessons at 1pm (our list of things to do next cruise is growing!) but made it to Ye Olde Pub Night at 2pm in the Cabaret Lounge (or, as we immediately renamed it, Ye Olde Pub Afternoon). Fun stuff!

This is a good time to talk about how the production show performers work on this small ship. There is one male singer and one female singer for the production shows, and that is all they are tasked to do. The dancers, however (four male and three female) form the bulk of the Cruise Director's Entertainment staff. The CD, David, has a Deputy Cruise Director, Michael, and then the dancers form the rest of the team. So dancers Warren and Natalie were handling tender ticket duty yesterday and Xavier's was the first smiling face we met when we boarded Sunday night. Another dancer conducts trivia classes, there are multiple ballroom dance classes every sea day, and still others host the games scheduled throughout the day. We have already met all of the dancers around the ship, and every featured entertainer too,  and it's really quite a friendly thing and much more personal than on the larger ships. 

It was a perfect day for a wine tasting, and that was held at 3pm. And that's the interesting thing about this ship:  there are a lot of things that feel familiar, such as the pub night and the wine tasting, but, at the same time,  it feels very different than a larger Princess ship. 

All afternoon, it continued to pour rain outside, so that, with the frigid temps in the public areas of this ship, I could have been easily convinced that we were sailing around Patagonia, not French Polynesia. 

We returned to our cabin after wine tasting and turned the TV on for the first time since we boarded. What an abundance of riches; Thursday Night Football on one channel and Downton Abbey on another!! It's Thursday?  It's night?  And Downton Abbey?  I really must pull out the TV programming guide to see what other goodies exist on our cabin TV. 

It was Breeza Marina night in the Elite lounge, and I have been waiting for that.  Herbed goat cheese on yummy special crackers and a drink...it probably isn't a huge surprise that when we went to dinner in the Club Restaurant, I was really not hungry at all. Eating all day on a sea day has that effect. I had just salmon and called it dinner. 

Things are looking up jet lag-wise. We managed to stay awake long enough to listen to live music in two different venues after dinner AND went to the performance of vocalist Claude-Eric in the Cabaret Lounge.  He sings in the style of Michael Bublé and was quite good. The funny thing is that I had talked with him yesterday on the tender to Rangiroa and he is so soft-spoken in "real life". I did a double take when that VOICE came out of him tonight. 

We continued to be impressed by the quality and quantity of entertainment on this small ship. Shows are still 45-50 minutes long (yay!) and the Cabaret Lounge always has more than ample seating. It makes cruising on this ship a very relaxing experience. 

We arrive tomorrow in Bora Bora for a two day stay. As a highlight of this cruise, we hope the weather is better than today. The skies did show signs of clearing tonight, so fingers crossed on that count. 

And, finally, a fact of life on this itinerary is that the Internet is difficult at best. Without a "free internet" day in Fort Lauderdale and St. Thomas to look forward to, I am going to have to really budget my 250 minutes per 10-night cruise.  Effectively three days into the cruise I had already used 100 minutes. Clearly this cannot continue. Perhaps it will improve when we reach the more touristy Society Islands. Hopefully we will be able to purchase some high speed wifi when we arrive back in Papeete. Unless this resolves, I will not be posting photos of the ship...I think it's more valuable to use time to post at least a few island photos. While uploading a text-only post takes only a minute or so, uploading last night's post with multiple photos took over 25 minutes.  At least I think it did. I nearly fell sleep waiting for it to finish.  :-o

Day 4: Rangiroa

Today was our first visit ever to the Tuamotu (Tu-a-MO-tu) Archipelago and I was so excited about the prospect of entering virgin territory that I set the alarm for 5am to view the sunrise and watch from the front of the Pacific Princess as the ship entered the Tiputa (Ti-PU-ta) Pass at high tide and sailed into the Rangiroa (Rang-ee-ROW-a) atoll, the second largest atoll in the world (the largest is in the Marshall Islands). 

The 77 atolls and one upraised island that form the Tuamotu Archipelago are spread across an area 310 miles wide and 939 miles long. These are some of the most remote islands in the entire world.  Rangiroa, the only island that the Pacific Princess visits in the Tuamoto archipelago, has been described as a strand of more than 240 pearls (motu islets) looped in a foot shape, separated by at least 100 very shallow 'hoa' channels and three passes. Tiputa Pass and Avatoru Pass on the north side of the atoll are deep and wide enough for ships to enter the lagoon; the third pass, Tivaru Pass on the west side, is narrow and shallow.

Source: Moon Tahiti Guide

Rangiroa means 'long sky' in the Paumotu dialect, and is often shortened to Rangi, but I think it should be called Ring-y, because that's really what it is...a ring of motus surrounding a lagoon that is like an inland sea, approximately 47 miles long by 16 miles wide. Imagine a lagoon so large you can't see across it to the other side!

Rangiroa offers some of the best diving/snorkeling in the world, in the clearest water imaginable, and all of the whopping three (!) excursions offered by Princess were related to the water:  a semisubmersible, a dive trip and a snorkel trip. For our first visit to Rangiroa, we chose to take the 12:30pm to 2:15pm Princess snorkel trip by boat to drift snorkel Tiputa Pass (we figured it would take all morning to put our snorkel gear together for the first time, but we'll improve over time). 

A quick word about the excursions we have planned...whereas in the Caribbean, we simply do our own thing and don't generally even take independent excursions let alone Princess excursions, it's obviously a bit different for us on this cruise. We have a mix of Princess excursions and independent excursions planned, and, at least half the time, we have no plans at all. This will allow us to possibly find something to do once on the island, or repeat an excursion or do nothing at all. We did not want to have every day planned out for us in advance. 

So, anyway, back to that 5am alarm. As I've been doing everyday so far, I woke naturally at 4:56am, and quickly shut off the alarm. I didn't think G was quite as intent on watching us enter the atoll through Tiputa Pass; he knows there will be other opportunities. I snuck out of the cabin and immediately encountered port lecturer Douglas Pearson. He had just come in from star gazing, and told me to be at the very front of the ship on Deck 10 for the best view of entering the pass. 

First, though, I was able to watch a beautiful sunrise as we approached the atoll. It was my first so far this cruise, and it occurs early, well before 5:30am right now. 

As Captain Servillo had predicted at last night's Captain's Welcome Aboard Cocktail Party, we did arrive early, nearly 90 minutes before our scheduled arrival of 8am, so as to take advantage of high tide in passing through the channel. A small group of us gathered at the bow of the ship, with Douglas Pearson narrating in two languages what we were seeing. And the first thing we saw was schools of bottlenose dolphins swimming quickly towards the ship. Douglas said they would split to swim by us, then turn around and surf the ship's wake while coming through the pass.  I imagine that they are well familiar with the Pacific Princess' schedule. ;-)

Next cruise I want to be at the back of the ship to see them surfing the wake.

We could see two small villages, one on either side of Tiputa Pass, Avatoru on the right side when entering and Tiputa on the left. Though separated by only a narrow pass, if there was a road around the ring of motus (there isn't), it would be 150 miles from one to the other. In fact, there is only 10km of paved road on the entire island, on the Avatoru side of Tiputa Pass, connecting the tiny airport to the village. One can also take a boat from one side of the pass to the other, as the school children do twice a day, as the school is in Avatoru but many live in Tiputa. Everything I've read indicated that the folks on the Avatoru side are a bit more "tourist friendly" than in Tiputa. 

Tiputa Pass, Rangiroa

Looking toward Avatoru Village

I then headed back to the Panaroma Buffet in search of coffee. I don't think I've mentioned that, though there is no International Cafe on the Pacific Princess, there is a coffee bar located right in the buffet and in the Club Lounge, just outside the Club Restaurant. I'm able to get brewed decaf in a to go cup from either location, and it's really much more convenient than on the larger ships. 

I was sitting on the terrace behind the buffet talking with friends Dave and Brenda when G found me. And that's another wonderful thing about this ship:  it's so small that we have no trouble "running" into each other. G and I had breakfast in the Club Restaurant, which is our preferred M.O.; even on this small ship the buffet feels a bit tight on a port day when everyone is eating breakfast at the same time. 

We returned to our cabin to find the excursion tickets for today and dig out gear for our snorkel trip. This was my first real usage of my new mask and snorkel...I was excited!  Then, since I had been up so early, I had a bit of a rest and started typing this post. BTW- I am having no trouble at all using AirDrop to transfer photos from one iDevice to the other without having to log in to wifi, and I need to thank the person on Cruise Critic who instructed me how to do that.  It's fast and easy.  However, my iPhone 4S does not have AirDrop, and getting photos from it to another device requires Bluetooth and is nearly impossible.  I may have to wait until I get home to add those photos. I've started using my iPad to type my posts...it certainly is 100 times easier to 'eight finger type', rather than 'two finger type'!!!  The only disadvantage is that I won't have my iPad with me if I happen to find wifi on shore, and will only be able to upload blog posts from the ship. 

Wifi has been so bad I'm not certain I'll even get these photos uploaded, but I am going to try. 

We needed to be on the pier to meet our excursion group at 12:20pm, but took an earlier tender to shore, just to see what there was to see. We had stopped by the Casino Lounge right after breakfast to ask about the tender process ('cause that's something we'll need to use a LOT this cruise). Warren from the entertainment staff (also a dancer in the production shows) told us that we'd still need to come there instead of going directly to the tender loading area, though as Elites with priority tendering we'd get to go on the very next tender. 

Let's just say that the priority tendering perk is of almost no importance on the Pacific Princess. They were calling open tender by 8:30am. What we'd heard about no lines anywhere on the Pacific Princess-  absolutely true!!

The tender operation was well run and very timely, and we waited no more than a few minutes on the boat before it left for the quick (less then 10 minute) ride to the pier. What met us on the island is exactly how I imagined it would be:  a laid back, rustic tropical paradise. There were a few tables set up on the pier selling (mostly) shell-based jewelry and local art, a bar/restaurant on the water, and, just beyond, a tiny (and I mean tiny) magazin (store) where G purchased a Hinano beer. The island is so narrow that we simply walked down the road to the ocean side, just adjacent to Tiputa Pass, and watched the waves break while G enjoyed his beer and we waited until it was time for our excursion. What was most amazing is that there was not a single piece of trash anywhere on that island. It was rustic, but neat as a pin. 

Our divemaster/ snorkel leader, Hugo, told us we were in for a treat because our 12:30pm tour was the one that exactly matched the incoming tide (hey, we just didn't want to have to rush this morning) and we would see thousands of fish swept in by the clear ocean water. He wasn't lying. The coral looked healthy but the draw really was the FISH. We also saw moray eels and too many black- and white-tipped sharks to count. The visibility was endless and, as on land, there was no trash anywhere on the ocean floor. 

This is a gorgeous part of the world. 

What we hadn't known, before today, was that we could pick up a snorkel tour right on the pier for $50pp; $70pp for a drift snorkel like we did. That's part of the reason we've booked a few ship excursions at least early on...we really have no idea what we're going to find on these islands. 

This snorkel tour through Princess ($99pp) was very basic...they did have some masks, snorkels and a few fins to use, but most people had brought their own. No spit, no water to drink, no drinks of any kind and no party music. It's not like a tour in the Caribbean; it's pretty simple. The draw is what's underwater. And I'd have to say that, although they had snorkel vests if we wanted one for floatation (I carry my own floatation with me all the time, thank you), this was an excursion that required strong swimming skills. Twice we swam hard against the current for 5-10 minutes, then turned and shot back with it. The hour of snorkeling which I had previously thought might be a bit short turned out to be an hour long hard workout and as much as I cared to do. 

The remainder of the 1:45 tour was the boat ride to/from the snorkel site. Well, it took only a few minutes to reach it. On the return, though, we headed back out through Tiputa Pass, and our tiny boat heaved up and down the huge waves, which made me squeal with delight but definitely didn't thrill the lady sitting across from me. I felt badly for her; she was so seasick. We both got drenched as the bow of the boat would slap down on the water.  We went out to see the dolphins that hang around the pass, and they were jumping out of the water all around us. For me, it was 15 minutes of pure excitement and fun. 

By the time we returned to the pier, we were worn out. Luckily, a tender boat was waiting right there, and, with only ten or so passengers, returned to the Pacific Princess. We had remembered to turn up the temperature in our cabin before we left, and, while one of us showered and rinsed our equipment, the other kept handing it in and setting clean things out to dry. 

Our cabin is trashed; it must have been a great day on Rangiroa. 

We were too hungry at that point (3:45pm) to wait for dinner and swung into the buffet. I had a sandwich and G had pizza and we drank buckets of water.  After the 5pm sailaway, we changed for dinner and went to the Elite Lounge and then a bit of dinner in the Club Restaurant.   And that was the end of our day. The entertainment tonight is a comedian who also performed the first night (as we were flying in) but we talked with him today in the buffet and he's here for two cruises. We'll catch him next time...we have a date with a pillow. 

I'll try to post this tonight...Internet is abysmal right now. Hopefully, once we return to the Society Islands, it will improve a bit. 

Day 3: At Sea

You know that we are not fans of long stretches of sea days in a row, but single sea days are very good things. And single sea days immediately following a long journey and setting up temporary residence on a new ship are gifts from heaven. And so today at sea was a very welcome one.

I must first mention that today was not originally scheduled to be a sea day. We were supposed to be in Huahine (pronounced Who-ah-HEE-nee, and, wow, did autocorrect give me fits typing that!). But about two months ago we received one of infamous 'Emergency Notifications' from Princess:

Cruise ship congestion in Rangiroa (Rang-ee-ROW-a)?  There are probably only 3 or 4 cruise ships within 1000 miles of us right now; what were the odds?  However slim they were, I am happy things worked out the way they did. 

Being a sea day, I'll be typing this post throughout the day. I have so many things to tell you that I'm not even going to try to string them together in a cohesive manner. So buckle your seat belts and prepare for a very GPS-worthy post!

Some leftover thoughts from past days...

We created a stir at both the Air Tahiti Nui check in at LAX and at Aimmigration at the Papeete airport. The fact that we're staying in the country for (I'll just spill the beans now) 60 days had everyone all aflutter. SIXTY days?  You'd think we were the first ones to ever do so. We already knew we didn't need a visa to do this (I'd contacted both Air Tahiti Nui and the French Embassy months before we'd left home); the limit without a visa is 90 days. But I'm certain the folks in line behind us at both check points were wondering what kind of fugitives we were, as we produced proof after proof of our onward travel plans and talked with higher and higher level personnel.  For once, we were the cause of consternation in the line. 

Maybe knowing that we're staying for six 10-night cruises explains a bit why we didn't fly down early before the cruise and also didn't do any extensive sightseeing yesterday. We'll be in Tahiti 10 or 11 days through all this; plus, we've been there before, so we prioritized our time differently than most. On both our previous visits, we had taken an all day 4WD tour with Patrick, an ex-pat Frenchman, and I highly recommend him. We went far into the center of the island, into the Papenoo Valley, visited a marae (holy site) and jumped 10-15 feet off cliffs into rushing waterfalls, sliding down into rock pools where the water beat on our backs. It was a perfect combination of history, culture, scenery and adventure. While we immensely enjoyed both days, we don't need to repeat them. 

Currency exchange is available through the Passenger Services Desk. US $1 gets you XPF86 minus $4.50 transaction fee, which is actually quite good. The reverse- it takes XPF103 to get US $1 back, minus the same transaction fee, not such a good deal. We are set for a couple of cruises with what we brought from home, but will eventually have to use an ATM card at one of the many banks in Papeete, which is generally the best way to get local currency when needed. If that doesn't work, we now have a backup plan through the ship, which is comforting knowledge (what with $13 tubes of laundry detergent and all). 

Our Cruise Director David Bradshawe, who hails from England, is a singing CD. We've only had three singing CDs in our entire cruising career. And one singing captain (Captain Kent on Royal Caribbean).  Of course, because the CD on the very first cruise we ever took sang, we thought they all did. Not so. Singing CDs are a rare breed.  David introduced our comedy magician in song last night, which was different and clever. 

We are quickly getting settled into our obstructed ocean view cabin. I should mention, at this point, that when we originally booked these cruises at the end of April, we were unable to get the same cabin for all of them; in fact, I don't recall that we were ever in the same cabin for two cruises in a row. Just a few days before we left home, we received notification that we had been assigned the same obstructed ocean view cabin on Deck 3 for all cruises, which was the nicest thing EVER. There are just 15 passenger cabins on this deck, it is the lowest (most stable) passenger cabin deck and we are on the same deck as the tender loading platforms.  Very convenient!  We are unpacked and moved in, and, as I've mentioned, have even rearranged the furniture to best suit us. And our tiny porthole is adorable...a child could use its alcove as a window seat, and we see the ocean rushing by just feet from our cabin.

It was impossible to get the focus just right on these photos, so I took one at each extreme. The top photo shows that our porthole actually has a cover, held up by a removable bar, that is closed when seas get rough.  I guess they worry that passengers will panic if they see Nemo swim by outside their window. The little area in front of it is perfect for storing the decorative pillows and topper from our beds. The bottom photo shows just how close we are to water level even in calm seas.

Our steward Bianca told us that our area is considered a training area, with three fewer cabins than most stewards have to service. She's so good that we had no idea she was new at what she does. 

I was too tired last night to mention that our comedy magician was Greg Moreland, and he was quite good and extremely personable. As predicted, it appears he is a resident entertainer, and will be offering classes to teach magic tricks to "impress your grandchildren". The twins are not grandchildren, but I imagine they might be impressed, however briefly, by magic tricks, at least until the start of the next football game. Impressing them grows harder by the year,  so I'm going to try to acquire a newskill  while on board. The Cabaret Lounge is, like every venue of this ship, appropriately small and it lacks the sloped, theater-style seating found in the Princess Theater on larger ships, but it offers a very intimate atmosphere that more than makes up for that. 

There are basically three entertainment venues on this ship:  the Cabaret Lounge, the Casino Lounge and the Pacific Lounge (excuse me for a moment while I go to Settings to set up new keyboard shortcuts for those names). The Cabaret Lounge features the evening show (shown twice, plenty of seating); the Casino Lounge and Pacific Lounge feature live music, with dancing at the latter, and last night there was pre-show music and dancing in the Cabaret Lounge. The Pacific Lounge very much resembles the Crows Nest on a Holland America ship, glassed in at the very top of the bow of the ship 

The Pacific Princess Orchestra has only four musicians. Like everything on this ship, it exists, just downsized. 

While wifi on the ship was pretty good while docked in Papeete (I called Mom using Vonage (for free!  Get the app!)), it has deteriorated considerably today. It has never been fast enough for us to check our security cams at home (or else they are blocked) but has done well with our Nest thermostat. Still, I see that Internet availability will be a recurring issue on this ship/ itinerary, and if the number of photos accompanying a post seems paltry, that's the primary reason. 

And, finally, on to today...

I slept until 5am again, and the earliest light of the day was already visible through our porthole. We went to breakfast in the Club Restaurant (aka the main/only dining room) where I made a point of taking food photos (you'd think I'd never cruised before).  At 10am, port lecturer (notice, NOT port and shopping lecturer, but just plain port lecturer, which is 1000 times better) Douglas Pearson was speaking in the Cabaret Lounge. Douglas moved from England to French Polynesia as a boy, and is effusive and enthusiastic as he jumps from one French Polynesian topic to another (he talks like I write and I write like I talk, so that may be part of the reason I so enjoyed his lecture). He currently lives on Moorea (Mo-o-RAY-a) but I get the impression that he is sort of a resident lecturer on the Pacific Princess while it is sailing in this region.  He is also available in the atrium a few hours every day to answer questions on all things French Polynesian. I think he'll be a valuable resource for us as we plan our days in ports. Luckily, his lectures are all re-broadcast on the cabin TVs, which is a good thing because...

...the Cabaret Lounge is meat-locker chilly. I am often tempted to bring sleeveless tops to wear for evenings on a ship, but I was reminded today of why I've learned not to. I may have to break out my fleece pullover instead!

We enjoyed lunch in the Club Restaurant (roasted bell pepper stuffed with rice for me, with fresh pineapple as sweet as candy for dessert).  This afternoon, G attended the veterans get together and I walked on the track above the pool area. It's small but not nearly as small as the jogging track on the Emerald Princess, which is like walking in circles.  I am trying to limit my sun exposure on sea days, as we will be in the near-equatorial sun so much in ports, so I did not hang out at the pool all day as I might have enjoyed doing. We had the best weather to date, with lots of sunshine and blue skies, but I know that passing rain showers are typical in French Polynesia this time of year. 

I wasn't feeling particularly participative, not that there aren't plenty of activities to choose from; there are (line dancing, but no Zumba today, for those who are curious). In fact, I have to say that there are just as many options as on a larger ship, but with even more places to tuck oneself away and just relax, too. The Promenade Deck, though it doesn't wrap around the ship, is wide and covered on both its starboard and port sides. The library is beautiful (I'll try to take and post photos of everything when/if internet improves). The atrium, though small, features plenty of cushy seating. We are surprised at how much we like this ship. I especially appreciate the ability to escape the din of loud noise; no movie screen blaring action movies by the pool, no constant music in the atrium. Just a classy but relaxed atmosphere all around the ship. 

Tonight was our first formal night. We started the evening with the Captain's Welcome Aboard Cocktail Party at 5:30pm in the Cabaret Lounge. Without the central Piazza that the larger ships have, I guess it's the only logical place to have it. We met (however briefly) our Captain, Carlo Servillo from Italy and his senior team. An astounding number of the ship's officers are Italian, with fewer Brits than we see on other Princess ships. Captain Servillo told us there are 29 nationalities on board this cruise, 642 people this sailing, with 377 in the ship's company, for just over "1000 souls" on board. Contrast that to the Allure of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship we were on last winter, with between 8000 and 9000 on board. 

We much prefer cruising this way. 

Tonight's party was not at all like the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall on the larger ships and exactly like the Platinum and Elite Captains Circle parties instead. Will we have a Captains Circle party later in the cruise?  We don't know; we're new here. 

Dinner with Antonio was wonderful. Our table for two is very close to a table for six but with just four people. We've ended up essentially joining their table, but with a different waitstaff which is a bit amusing. The food has not been hot enough for my taste (I want my hot food hot and my cold food cold) but it has been delicious and my beef tenderloins tonight were tender and at the perfect temperature.  Accompanied by a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon and followed by a cheese plate for dessert, it was the epitome of a wonderful formal night dinner.  

The Pacific Princess, with only one dining room, does not offer Anytime Dining, just fixed traditional dining at 6pm and 8:15pm. This is the way it always used to be on cruises, but we have been spoiled by Anytime Dining and the ability to linger after dinner over coffee and dessert without needing to clear out to make way for the next seating, or to skip dessert, go to a show and then return to the dining room. Still, we are having no trouble adapting. We simply prefer it the other way. 

The first production show of the cruise, called Stardust, was performed tonight, but Captain Servillo told us at the party tonight that, due to the tide tomorrow in Rangiroa, we would be anchoring 90 minutes early, at 6:30am.  Our desire to watch the Pacific Princess as she sails into the world's second largest atoll is greater than our desire to see Stardust. We are early to bed and (hopefully) early to rise as we greet our first day in the Tuamoto archipelago. Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine!

Day 2: Papeete, Tahiti

On our first full day in Tahiti, you might imagine we took an island tour. Went to a beach. Shopped for Tahitian black pearls. Instead, we spent the day first unpacking, and then looking for liquid hand soap and laundry detergent. The latter took half of our time and all our money and so from here on out we can't afford to leave the ship. 

I'm only half kidding. 

As I mentioned in my last post, we started stirring about 5am, which was later than I might have expected. My first real view of our cabin (an obstructed ocean view cabin on Deck 3) was not promising. It didn't help that we had unpacked luggage and dirty clothes everywhere. It didn't help that the bed was set up, as it was supposed to be, with the headboard on the right wall. It didn't help that the storage was very un-Emerald Princess- (or any Grand Class ship for that matter) like. Oh my. Where to start?  

I reminded myself that the Pacific Princess is the ship used for the 100+ day World Cruise, and if those passengers could figure out how to make this cabin work, we certainly should be able to. 

It was still early, so we quickly unpacked, and, in doing so, discovered just how workable the storage in this cabin is. I don't care for the closet doors, or the glass door covering the bathroom shelves (I want open, accessible storage in a cruise ship cabin ) but, aside from that very minor beef, everything fit with room to spare. I gathered up dirties for a first load of laundry (fingers crossed here that there are no burrs in the Pacific Princess' commercial washer or dryer drums) simply because I couldn't stand to have the clothes we had traveled in with us in the cabin. Then, after getting approval from our cabin steward, Bianca, we started rearranging furniture. 

You should have seen us, G holding up the end of one bed as I pushed the other bed underneath and past it. In the end, we moved both beds under the porthole window, and it seemed to double the floor space in this cabin. The table in front of the love seat just fit in the closet, and that gave us even more room. And just those two moves made this a cabin anyone could do a World Cruise in. 

Don't worry...we'll put it all back in order before we disembark. 

By then it was 7:30am, and the Club Restaurant was open for breakfast.  We were famished. Furniture moving the morning after a day of travel will do that to a person, I guess. After ordering the usual (mixed berries and orange slices to start and egg beaters with double salsa) I sat back and spotted the waiter working the next table. He was Romeo from the Philippines who we knew from the Emerald Princess. And another waiter, Frederick, came to say Hi. He, too was from the Emerald Princess. That's a very enjoyable part of cruising Princess, seeing crew members we've cruised with in the past. 

We then spent some time seeing the ship, which is totally see-able in about 15 minutes. Naturally, much of it was recognizable from photos and videos I've seen online, but what was a bit of a surprise is that, though it is exactly as it appears in media, it's all so small. In fact, it very much reminds me, in style and decor, of Holland America's small ship, Maasdam. Granted, the Maasdam holds twice as many passengers, but it certainly has the same feel. And we loved the 24 nights we spent on the Maasdam.

We had awakened to a steady rain, which discouraged us from leaving the ship this morning. We found two cushioned loungers on the wide, covered Promenade Deck and settled in to watch the ferry and boat traffic. The island of Moorea is just across the channel from Tahiti and ferries run back and forth all day long. One of us (not me, of course) might have snoozed and, before we knew it, it was time for an early lunch. 

The Panorama Buffet is oh-so-tiny, and the pizzeria is actually located right in the buffet, which is not so good for pool-side pizza consumption (on the larger ships it's located adjacent to a pool) but is superb for grabbing a piece of pizza and a salad from the salad bar quickly and easily. Most people appeared to be off the ship sightseeing, because the buffet was nearly empty, and I took advantage of that to take food photos. I had already received my orders for the day from McGuy:

Forget the scenery; he wants FOOD photos!!

By then, the rain had just about stopped, though the nearby mountains were shrouded in clouds. We were able to eat on the (partially) covered terrace behind the buffet and take in the scenery. Pinch me- I'm in Tahiti!

Finally, it was time to walk off the ship, and we reversed last night's walk down the pier, only this time we weren't soaked with rain and weren't rolling carry ons through puddles of water. That was a bit rough last night, but I was so happy to be here I was oblivious to the inconveniences. 

We stopped by the Tahiti Visitors Center located right at the pier, and an adorable guy offered us his best ideas for purchasing hand soap and laundry detergent, two things that didn't make the cut when it came to best using our allowable baggage weight. Our first stop was the port pharmacie located right across the street, but we immediately ran into trouble. There were simply no brands we were familiar with, and though they had lots of nicely fragranced liquid soaps, most of them were a bit too fragranced to appeal to G. Finally we found a fragrance free utilitarian shower gel in a pump dispenser that would do the job. At nearly US $10, it was our introduction to French Polynesia's exorbitant prices. 

We wandered the shops closest to the waterfront looking for laundry detergent but not seeing any. Finally, we walked through Papeete's municipal market (called Le Marché) and that provided some of the funnest photo ops of the day. Fish, fruits and vegetables of all types and colors, and every vendor, to a person, smiled and gestured permission for me to take photos when I asked (in the Caribbean, a request like that might get me an open palm for a bribe). Everyone we met was very welcoming. 

Our iPhones 6s garnered us as much interest as we were showing in the produce and fish, and opened the door for us to ask lots of questions and have some good, though simple conversations. French in the official language but Tahitian is also widely spoken; English is less common, but most of the younger people could speak at least a bit. Finally, we were directed to one last possible store for laundry detergent and here we hit pay dirt.  Concentrated gel laundry detergent in a tube about twice the size of a toothpaste tube for $13. Of course, we had to ask two 12-year old boys, stopping in for after-school ice cream treats which tube was detergent and which was fabric softener. They didn't have a clue, but were willing interpreters between the store clerk and us. In fact, they seemed tickled to have been consulted and, for their trouble, we paid for their ice cream. $28 poorer for hand soap, laundry detergent...and ice cream, we returned to the ship in preparation for muster drill and sail away. 

The Pacific Princess is so small that there are only two muster locations (the large ships usually have five). Our location was the Club Restaurant, and it was quick and simple...though I was surprised to hear a new narrator on the safety briefing. We also had to take our life jackets with us and put them on (that's changing in some ships). It was there that we saw our Captains Circle host / Future Cruise Consultant, none other than Catherine Fullarton, one of our favorites who we spent most of our cruises with two winters ago.

We raced back to our cabin for quick showers and to dress for dinner before sail away, but we actually sailed early (as we could see out our porthole window). Oh well, we'll be doing this again in ten days. Instead we went up to the Sterling Steakhouse which is where the Elite Lounge is held. It's an excellent location, up on the highest deck 10, with floor to ceiling windows, but has tables and chairs instead of sofa seating so it feels a bit different than Skywalkers in the Emerald Princess. 

Sitting there, watching the water, was a bit surreal. Did we really go home for 6 1/2 months, because that felt so...normal, like it's something I do everyday. 

Dinner in the Club Restaurant at 6pm was at a table for 2 with Antonio from Portugal and Gerald from India. The menu featured my very favorite entree, cioppino, Italian seafood stew, and one of my fav desserts, Key Lime Pie. Both were in short supply last winter on the Emerald Princess, and I enjoyed them very much. 

A comedy magician show followed in the Cabaret Lounge, the equivalent of the Princess Theater. G was asleep before it ended (and he was far from the only one). The time change was catching up with him as it is right now with me. It's 10:48pm, 4:48am EDT, and I have just this minute hit a wall. I'll post this now, and call it a day.